Could a Real Zionist Leader Please Step Forward

 

Yesterday the Israeli public received a surprise as Avigdor Liberman resigned as Foreign Minister and announced that his Yisrael Beytenu Party would sit in the opposition rather than sit in a centrist government which does not represent a strong right wing and nationalist governance. Whether this was a political ploy to try and gain additional positions despite Yisrael Beytenu’s less than overwhelming show in the elections or an attempt to cast himself and his Yisrael Beytenu Party as the real leader willing to stand apart, if that is what is necessary to force a real nationalist coalition with real nationalist goals and directives forming the coalition agreement; Avigdor Liberman may mean exactly what he claims or this may be a restructuring while performing a facelift for what appears to be an ailing Yisrael Beytenu Party. Whatever Avigdor Liberman may have in mind, it remains to be seen whether his prediction of an ill functioning coalition will spend much of its time plugging holes and cracks in the coalition attempting to hold a governing coalition of merely sixty-one Ministers, as slim a majority as one might ever hope to make a working ruling coalition. Avigdor Liberman has struck the heart of the problem and probably knows exactly what he is doing by pointing out that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not only not a proven nationalist but actually a reluctant nationalist. I hope Avigdor Liberman is not expecting to be awarded a Zionist achievement medallion with which he can claim to be the nationalist answer to Benyamin Netanyahu and find himself being chosen to form the next ruling coalition after the next election. But the best bet is that Avigdor Liberman is simply jostling the electorate and rattling everybody’s cage both within the coalition and in the opposition basically claiming he is willing to go it alone rather than enter a coalition which ignores or even opposes what he sees as some of the most vital of nationalist and Zionist principles which he is claiming as the core beliefs of the Yisrael Beytenu Party. Whether this move is just a ploy to gain advantage for his joining of the coalition between now and the deadline this week for forming a coalition remains for us to see.

 

Whatever the result of the Liberman gambit and the Netanyahu coalition cobbling, the realities are that there may not be an actual Zionist or nationalist leader whose political party is capable of garnering sufficient support to warrant being tapped to form the coalition after the next elections. That begs the question of what is the most likely alternative and how can any alternative to another Netanyahu coalition be formulated as the best possibility for those who might offer a more positive governing coalition leadership. That is where the crux of the problem lies. Prime Minister Netanyahu speaks probably one of the best Zionist and nationalist arguments one could ever imagine but when it comes to putting action to those wonderful sounding worlds it appears that Prime Minister Netanyahu has an application problem which he is unable to get past. The chance that anybody might have come by having the religious Zionists and nationalist camp combine together and promise that if given the necessary representation as a combined group that a new form of government would be installed where the Ministerial department positions would be awarded experts from industry, academia and wherever else they may be found is possibly too much to expect happen by chance. The promise is that the ministers on your party list are intending to be members of the Knesset but not be rewarded with positions for which they have little if any expertise. There would be two completely separate lists of candidates, one would contain close to or over seventy names taken from the several parties and a secondary list of proposed cabinet positions as Ministers of the Cabinet who were chosen for their expertise and not as bribes to patch together a ruling coalition. This would be a fresh new concept where the Prime Minister was not using the myriad of Ministerships which make up his cabinet as rewards for those choosing to join the coalition and instead offer a coalition of parties who have agreed upon a purely Zionist grounds to become part of a new governance where the coalition is formed purely on principles and the Ministers in the Knesset would be responsible for addressing the matters of law and regulations. A few examples might be in order, Foreign Minister could be held by Benyamin Netanyahu where he could use his special powers of persuasion; Professor Stanley Fischer would make an outstanding Minister of the Economics Portfolio as he is unrivaled in his abilities in the field of economics, a military leader such as General Ganz could be charged with Defense Minister and other similar such discerning selections could be made to fill the other Ministerships which would make up the Cabinet Ministries.

 

The problem with this idea is getting the members of the political class to agree to forgo their egos and simply do what would in the long run be best for Israel. I am sure that every Minister who manages to land some prestigious Cabinet Ministership would feel they are exquisitely qualified to address anything required by the position and they are so brilliant that they would not even gain by the advice of an actual expert. This has usually been most evidenced by those tasked as Minister of Finance, Minister of Defense, Minister of Public Security, Minister of Housing and Construction and we could simply go down the list until we had all of them listed for one reason or another. Part of the problem with the current system is that the separate ministers are also using the power of their particular ministerial position to gain leverage over other Ministers who also can use their ministerial powers to take revenge and in the end the Israeli public pays the price as government ends up being grossly mismanaged. If at the top of the whole government is a Prime Minister who is having difficulties threading the needle while walking a tightrope over a river swarming with crocodiles because he is attempting not to upset the leaders of the rest of the world while keeping a lid on a cabinet filled with egomaniacs all vying to undo the other’s position while ignoring their own responsibilities and still run a nation, well, that is a recipe for a disaster. The biggest problem is the lack of a positive and strongly led group which knows what the end result that is desired and they all can actually agree on that desired result. Such leadership has to be resolute and determined and must be sufficiently sure of their position thus capable of taking command of any situation and continue to move towards that goal while solving every problem actually of any consequence along the way. The problem is there has been no such leader who has come forward and declared such a vision and painted a picture for the Israeli people to also see that vision and be supportive, or at least fifty-five percent voting public behind this vision.

 

There was such a vision and slogan that could have made that difference when Naftali Bennett hit on the no apology for desires to keep that which belongs to Israel according to International Law. He was on target with this idea and could have built upon this base structure by giving the explanation why we no longer need to say we are sorry for living on our own homeland and we have had enough with the demands for the dividing of our lands, of our Jerusalem, of all that is ours forevermore. But then Naftali Bennett made a cardinal error even if he believed that which he stated when he stated that he was not yet ready to be Prime Minister. Mr. Bennett, let me let you in on a little secret, nobody who is honest with themselves is ever ready to be Prime Minister but that does not mean that they should come out and say so. Once you lost faith in your ability to lead, on that moment your entire no apology campaign apologized and died. The really sorry thing is that honestly we the people of Israel should never forgive you for stealing out opportunity to follow an idea whose time had come and had a vibrant and energetic leader saying what we needed and wanted to hear and then he balked and stole from us our opportunity. Naftali, if I may be so casual, it was not your place to decide if you were ready to be Prime Minister; that decision belonged to us, the Israeli public. If we decided you were ready then it was up to us to give you whatever you needed to lead and do so with vigor and confidence grown by the faith of the people you lead. The secret is that anyone can lead providing they have drawn a clear picture for the future, defined how they plan to take us to that future, tasked the people with their role in this plan and then step forward and let the wave of the supporters assisting and pushing you on ahead as the leader. You see, the people choose a leader and when there is no true and real leader with an idea and a picture they can draw for everyone of what they aim to accomplish and the people agree and ask again for the initial steps they should take that lead to your future and then get ready to run. If as the leader you falter, then the people will have to carry you until you regain your footing; but if we detect that your faith has wavered and the dream has dimmed in your eyes and deserted your hearing, then the people will seek a new leader as you will have left them stuck half way, but the people will live on and find their next leader as that is how it works. Read about Winston Churchill’s life. He was ridiculed and chased from public life, called a warmongering old man who never left the big war. Yet when Hitler was knocking on Britain’s door who did they call? Winston Churchill, and almost as soon as that war ended they unceremoniously punted him from office and into retirement until a few years later they once again needed a leader as they were facing dire problems. Winston Churchill may not have been the leader they needed then, but during World War II there could not have been a better leader than Winston Churchill and the Queen steadied the ship and even joined the crews working in the wreckage that was south London. She assisted in stacking the whole bricks and the broken bricks each according to size and reusability and her assistance did little in the theme of things but few did more. The Queen, Churchill, and the Royal Air Force (RAF) saved Britain to fight another day, and fight on she did. Great times will make great leaders more often than great leaders will make great times.

 

When the situation is dire and the enemies are closing on all quarters leaving nothing on which to hope than one last charge into the breach, then that is when a great leader is required. Israel is in just such a position. The friend who gave promise after promise barely keeping a one of them but still a friend is all one can hope for when the stormy winds do blow. The winds are blowing and swirling all about Israel yet thus far she has held her ground and not been swept into the mire quite yet. It is just these winds which are blowing everywhere just outside our borders and beyond does not bode well as these items have a way of dragging us down and into the fray. Israel needs a great leader with a cool hand and a mind capable of nimble calculations made on the fly yet critically accurate. The rules for judging human beings and their often emotional outbreaks are not as well defined as a game of chess or checkers. Israel’s main problem lies at a distance but is also being permitted to enrich uranium and plutonium such they will be a virtual nuclear armed nation, whatever that means. United States President Obama may have misspoken when answering a question about Iranian breakout point when he answered that their breakout time would be zero. The media pretended that he had not made any odd or worrisome statement and the interview continued without returning to that question or making any note when summing up the interview. A breakout time of zero means that the Iranians after a decade will have the ability to make an advanced nuclear weapon in as little as six weeks, possibly less. Additionally, should the Houthis in Yemen conquer the entirety of their nation, something which appears to be all but guaranteed, then indirectly Iran will have control over the two most strategic chokepoints for shipping in the world. Additionally, this will add Yemen to the list of nations directly or indirectly which include Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and their foothold in South America in the Tri-Border Region. Iran has ties with the Cuban government as well as loose alliances with the Mexican drug cartels through Hezballah and by whom they gain access into the United States. Saudi Arabia and Egypt are getting rather edgy with Yemen being their immediate concern. The Saudis have even gone so far as to seek a possible alliance which would include Turkey, the wildcard which nobody knows where they will appear but one can bet that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan which will make Egypt more than a little edgy as Turkey and especially Recep Tayyip Erdogan have direct and deep relations with the Muslim Brotherhood. One item which everyone can rely on from Turkey sometime this summer they will again launch the Mavi Marmara on another attempt at breaking the Gaza Embargo blockade. Thus far there is no solid data on how many ships and activists they plan in sending along with the Mavi Marmara on this summer’s little stunt which the leaders of IHH have planned with the finest Islamist blessing from Recep Tayyip Erdogan. As one can see from just this sampling of the realities, pressures, problems, challenges and other calamities waiting for those who choose to desire to lead the state of Israel, it is no wonder that Naftali Bennett and others would think themselves not ready to take on the challenges any Israeli Prime Minister must face even briefly, let alone for four years should he also manage to keep all the disparate groups making up his coalition happy, and this would prove difficult even if one was blessed with a coalition with only three or four parties giving the Prime Minister the comfort of a seemingly stable coalition to oversee. In all honesty, no sane person could ever truly be ready to hold the office of Prime Minister and anybody saying different has not considered the challenges or the threats they would face when holding the position. The Prime Minister would have those detractors who would sit comfortably challenging every decision made by the Prime Minister simply playing devil’s advocate and that are just the media. Even from within his own party the Prime Minister would receive criticisms both from those further to the right and from those further to the left and would soon realize that a Prime Minister can find themselves truly alone even in a meeting of his inner cabinet. Facing these challenges and the other daunting difficulties which every Prime Minister is required to face would chill the nerves of even the best amongst us and would be such that no rational individual would desire such office, yet should the head of even the smallest party claim they are not willing to put their shoulder against the wheel and push it with all their might, then that party needs to choose a new leader who is composed of sterner material. Still, leading a party and potentially having to face the burdens of the office of the Prime Minister would be the challenge of one’s lifetime and truly exhausting taking every last morsel of energy you could give and then demand just that little bit more as the office will force you to give your best effort or it will overwhelm one; so yes Mr. Bennett, you are like every other person who would be facing this before you, but still whether the people desire you to take on that mantle is who decides whether you are ready for such position and you as a party leader do not have the right to take that choice from us, the electorate. That is how the system works and that is what we are left with currently and for the foreseeable future and it is up to us to make this system work and to make changes as we are able and prove to have been capable to meet the challenge just as the electorate chose, the electorate chose and not the party leadership necessarily making such a choice. May the electorate find that leader capable of withstanding the pressures and still stand ready and capable of staring down any external influences who will try to manipulate the leaders of the nation of Israel as, for reasons too perplexing to go into here, the whole rest of the world seems to believe that they are the deciders of what direction Israel must take, yet they are gathered around the Israeli leadership waiting with the patience of vultures desiring to feast on the last remnants of Israel after the world powers have chopped sufficient sections off to grant to any and every claimant against the Jewish nation and then waiting for the last bit to die a very unnatural death. This is why we must have a leader who will stand up and say, ‘no more’ and ‘never again’ and lastly, ‘that which was promised us by man and by a higher power will be ours to cherish and you with your axes desirous of cleaving piece after piece knowing that your angry actions will destroy would kill the victim Israel must know we will not go quietly into that darkness you wish to silence us with, we will not go into the night without a fight, we will win and retain our lands and the Zionist spirit which built her out of the swamps and rocks and boulders and against every challenge we did and will continue to prevail.’

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Coalition Choices Will Reveal if Sacrifice to Vote Likud Was Righteous

 

If as all are assuming and Benyamin Netanyahu is chosen by President Rivlin to attempt to form a ruling coalition, the choices which Netanyahu makes, and the sacrifices he decides are either favoring his intentions or necessary for assuming power, will be scrutinized by the Religious Zionists who have already made a huge sacrifice taking away votes, mandates and eventually influence from their normative parties such as Jewish Home (: הַבַּיִת הַיְהוּדִי), Yachad (יַחַד) and any other nationalist, Zionist, religious or politically conservative party and entrusted Netanyahu and the additional Knesset Ministers to carry out their desired goals. There have been signs that Netanyahu recognizes these sacrifices but it will remain for all to witness for how long he keeps these trusts in mind and for how long, if at all, the additional Ministers remain faithful to the traditional and core principles found within the Likud foundational documents and beliefs. Some of the important trusts which Netanyahu could perform immediately after the Knesset votes affirming his coalition range from the easy, shattering the silent building freeze and allow extensive enlargement of the communities in Judea and Samaria including allowance for the seeding of new communities and industrial and other economic centers across the width and breadth of Area C and, further down the road, adding new ventures in Area B.

 

Netanyahu can alter the conversation of forming an independent Arab state by stating that Israel is willing to allow a semi-autonomous Arab entity which rules its denoted area independent of Israel as far as governing themselves much as they currently live but remaining as an autonomous entity within Israel and reliant on the IDF for any defensive requirements and restricted from acting on the international level such as making treaties with other nations or acting in ways detrimental to the needs, requirements, political policies or relations beyond those already existent within Israeli foreign policies and relations. As Prime Minister of Israel he should bring the Levy Report to the forefront of Israeli actions towards the lands of Judea and Samaria and stress the commitments that Israel expects the world to recognize as explained and set out in the report’s conclusion.

 

As Prime Minister, Netanyahu must also begin and reinforce stressing constantly Article 80 of the United Nations Charter and bring to the fore the San Remo Conference documents and surround these two legally binding principles recognized and presumably enforceable under International Law making an airtight irrevocable claim of ownership over all of Judea and Samaria as well as the rest of the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. These ideas and their implications should end any further claims that International Law forbids Israel from annexing all of Judea and Samaria as long as the Arabs residing within the annexed areas retain full religious rights, full human rights, full legal rights, and virtually any form of rights imaginable with one very important exception, they may be denied political rights. This is the situation which must be stressed due to its importance and revealing the full rights pertaining to the Israeli rights to all the lands making them not only no longer contested but that their occupation by the Arabs is illegal and that any autonomy granted to the Arabs by Israel cannot and will not be construed as allowing for an independent Arab State or any other state as the lands were preserved for the Jewish State under International Law without even a sliver of doubt or contention by any other entity.

 

During the forming of the Twentieth Knesset, Prime Minister Netanyahu must make every effort not to include Yesh Atid and thus place Yair Lapid in the opposition thus any disturbance which emanates from him will not be a direct threat to the coalition or cause the governing coalition to be dissolved. The formation of a ruling coalition which is stable and supportive of the principles which Netanyahu was elected to pursue, protect and empower should be the foremost thought and a requirement of which each party must agree to value just as stridently and with vigor equal to that used backing their primary issues without exception. Here is the list of the Parties according to ideology and probability to be included in the coalition to those expected to be relegated to the opposition: Likud – 29, Jewish Home – 8, Yisrael Beiteinu – 6, Shas – 7, United Torah Judaism – 7, Kulanu – 10, Yesh Atid – 11, Arab List – 14, Meretz – 4, Labor/Hatnua – 24. Likud could ally with their 29 mandates and add Jewish Home, Yisrael Beiteinu, Shas, United Torah Judaism, and Kulanu reaching a total of 67 total seats while avoiding including Yair Lapid and his Yesh Atid. Of course should the Labor/Hatnua take the remaining mandates and swing Kulanu and they also would have over 61 mandates which makes Kulanu, or technically Yair Lapid the deciders of the results of the election and whether or not Likud is able to put together their required mandates and form a government. Hopefully Netanyahu will use the wiles and strong turnout and support for his party to form his coalition. This process will be noted and hopefully will not cause concern but what will really matter are those few items the such as honestly putting the building freeze out of our misery and permit building and allow such building in all areas of commerce, industry and residential allowing for strong and attractive communities. Then there will be the initial pressures to restart the peace process in which Netanyahu will need to bring the argument and propaganda to rest and replace it with the facts, treaties and accords which define which lands belong to whom and under, that ever so mentioned and used to bludgeon Israel, International Law which should stand firmly beside Israel and all her claims to retain all of her lands, period!

 

After establishing these two initiatives Bibi can then address the social issues with solid economic steps which are reasoned and fully debated moving ahead with measured steps and firm reliance and faith in the practices established by previous similar situations which produced the desired results. In numerous instances what may be required is for the government to get out of the way and relegate some functions to religious institutions that are better suited for some functions such as free kitchens which feed those in need of such assistance. There will also be those functions which government is best suited to solve and should act. This should come naturally to Netanyahu as he proved in a previous government when he was assigned the Economy Minister. Such problems are usually traceable to a few requirements which make achieving a goal which would protect the poor and provide relief with minimal red tape. The same is true of many items burdening the Middle Class. As stated, Netanyahu will be facing the closest scrutiny from more than the usual entities as he received a strong mandate from people outside his party and beyond his base and these people have known grievances and demands and they will watch sitting on nervous expectations that had best be addressed with a sense of urgency. So, as said all too often after elections, we will wait and see with open minds and soaring hearts all kept within reason by good Jewish kidneys. (Oh yes, we had a whole article using the Biblical reference by King David to kidneys and their blessings and importance in so many ways, honest.)

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Long Night Births Hard Questions on Israeli Election Results

 

With virtually all the votes counted we have the preliminary picture but the lines are fuzzy and the results produce more questions than answers. Likud is leading the pact with 29 seats with the “Zionist Camp” of Labor and Hatnua following with 24 and the Joint Arab List has 14 seats, followed by Yesh Atid with 11, Kulanu with 10, Jewish Home has 8, the Haredi parties Shas and United Torah Judaism tied at 7, Yisrael Beytenu has 6 and Meretz closes out the list with 4 seats and unfortunately Yachad party will be left out. The raw numbers would indicate a huge win for Netanyahu and loss for the “Zionist Camp” falling well behind due to Likud exceeding its lower polling and Labor-Hatnua equaling expectations. A closer look reveals where the Likud came by its higher numbers and it appears that Likud gains came at the expense of largely Jewish Home and potentially prevented Yachad from making threshold. The other obvious change has been that instead of preventing the fragmentation and reducing the number of minor parties the raising of the threshold only served to drive the smaller leftist, anti-Zionist Communist and Post=Modernist parties into a single block under the name of Arab Block and given them two to three additional mandates making Zoabi and Tibi appear all the stronger. These raw results are meaningless until the different parties, unions and blocks make their desires and support clear to President Rivlin producing a clearer picture who should be given first shot at forming a coalition.

 

The raw data would make Likud out to be the victor and to the victor go the spoils, but what spoils? The name of the game is coalition making and hopefully doing so with in kind minds and supporters of your positions. This means that any seats gained by Likud at the expense of Jewish Home makes the resultant total possessed by the two presumed to be allied parties no different and all the Likud gains from Jewish Home losses as simply rearranging the chairs on either a cruise ship or the Titanic. The truth is that Netanyahu does not really want the religious, Zionist, nationalist allied parties to be the base of his support when forming his coalition. Netanyahu wants to have as much political leeway allowing him to go in whatever direction provides him with the easiest path in the new government. By Netanyahu weakening the standing of Jewish Home, when forming any coalition now would make Yesh Atid’s Yair Lapid and Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu parties more important and carrying a greater influence than Jewish Home and making Naftali Bennett’s voice virtually powerless and squelched while Yair Lapid and Moshe Kahlon will be the roaring lions in the government and also place them ahead of Jewish Home in choosing the Ministerial position of power in the cabinet. This will give Netanyahu the leftward freedom to ignore the demands of the Religious Zionists as he desired. Netanyahu’s ploy of assailing Jewish Home voters laying any loss he might face to Hertzog and Livni at their feet just as he had done previously except this time he did so with no apparent loss in voter totals that he faced in 2013.

 

So now we wait and see who will be chosen to form a coalition first and then suffer through six weeks of excruciatingly boring power plays which we already see Jewish Home and the Zionist and nationalists being mostly sidelined while the personal aggrandizing Yesh Atid and Kulanu parties empowering Yair Lapid and Moshe Kahlon loudly impressing their demands and thus control over the most critical areas in the next government. Lapid may demand Treasury Minister for himself and two other high position Ministerial position for his main people with Kahlon likely to demand Foreign Minister or Defense Minister and two other major Ministerial positions for his list leaving Jewish Home with second pickings of the scraps for the supporting members and a middle level leftover for Naftali Bennett. The one certainty is that the governing coalition will not be the nationalist, Zionist government that Netanyahu once again ran on but will once again claim he is prevented from pursuing due to the lack of support from, you guessed it, a weakened and ineffectual Jewish Home. As long as the religious Zionists fall for the Netanyahu cry after running a weak campaign making the certainty of his returning to the Prime Ministership a definitive possibility from the polls and then turning to the supporters of Jewish Home and the other ardent Zionist parties to vote Likud to stave off the leftist challenge then Jewish Home will be forever the bridesmaid and never the bride. Eventually the leader, be it Bennett or be it his successor or beyond down the road, assuming there is a down the road, decides to challenge and present Jewish Home as the new leadership for Israel, Netanyahu will continue to utilize this ploy of siphoning off the votes of those more Zionist than Netanyahu desires to govern with and neutering those Zionist parties from where Netanyahu glides to victory with the stolen support, then the real Zionist political power will remain neutered and voiceless in the future Likud Party led governments. For now we must wait and see what develops but be warned that the expectations of the ardent Zionists have once again been sacrificed to the Bibi and thus lower expectations are their feed in the coming government. The other reality is that it appears that Netanyahu will require Yair Lapid and his treasonous backstabbing to permit a coalition to be cobbled together, so expect new elections again in two or so years when Lapid again sees a wounded Netanyahu for his actions such as the silent building freeze or whatever other sacrifices made presumably in response to a powerful United States President Obama in order to salvage continued friendship from the White House. Anybody else notice that it is only Israel who needs to obey and bow to the will of Obama? Can bowing to golden calves or worse be far behind?

 

Beyond the Cusp